April 16, 2018

We have launched a funding appeal on CrowdJustice to raise the final tranche of legal fees, ahead of the Supreme Court hearing in May.

Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld return to court on the 14th/15th May 2018 in the next stage of their fight to legalise their relationship through a civil partnership rather than through marriage. Having already gone through the High Court and Appeal Court, their case has already established legal precedent and is of real interest and relevance for specialists in both family and human rights law.

There are well over 3 million unmarried cohabiting couples in the UK. Whilst the reasons for cohabiting vary, all suffer from the same lack of legal status and financial protections. If the law can be modernised, a very large number of people potentially stand to benefit.

Currently, cohabitees have virtually no legal protection. The opportunity that they could enjoy, should the case be successful, to formalise their relationship with a civil partnership will automatically provide the same protections that marriage does. Family law specialists will be keen to see people being removed from a problematic area legally.

The case has also already proved of special interest in the field of human rights law. The Appeal court accepted that matters pertaining to cohabitees’ rights like this do fall within the ambit of Article 8 of the ECHR, setting a precedent that has already been used in subsequent appeal cases and which has helped other cohabitees to extend the limited rights they do have.

The funding will be specifically to cover the costs of providing the ‘bundles’ for the Supreme Court which need to be both detailed and of the highest quality. With five Supreme Court judges and three QCs involved, eight very detailed bundles need to be produced.

The CrowdJustice site can be found on www.crowdjustice/case/equalcivilpartnerships/